AP English Literature & Composition | 24-25

Blue Tent AP English Literature & Composition

Our online AP English Literature and Composition course is designed for high school homeschoolers who are sophomores, juniors, or seniors (15+). Students will explore the craftsmanship and significance of remarkable literature that has endured through the ages. From Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities to Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, students will reflect on themes that resonate today just as they did in past decades and centuries.

Class Details

AP English Literature & Composition | Asynchronous full-year class.
Tuition & Resources:
- Tuition: $850
- See all required class readings and resources HERE.
Instructor: Christine Proctor
Dates: August 19, 2024 to May 2025 (AP exam)
Grade level: 11th & 12th
- Prerequisite: Blue Tent Honors English Lit & Comp 2 or an equivalent rigorous 10th grade English class
Class size: 15-20
See our FAQ for:
- age/grade guidelines, prerequisites, and class fit recommendations
- a complete list of days, times, and breaks
- a list of CA charter schools where this course is a-g approved
Format:
- Students share an interactive online classroom.
- This is an asynchronous (text-based) class. While there are no live meetings, it is not self-paced. There is student/student and student/teacher interaction throughout each week.
Average weekly time estimate: 8-12 hours
This course is NCAA-approved.
This course complies with the AP course audit and has been approved by the College Board.
- On the 2024 AP Literature exam:
  - 46% of all BTO students scored a 5.
  - 77% of all BTO students scored a 4 or a 5 (and 100% scored a 3, 4 or 5).
    - By comparison, 41% of all students globally scored a 4 or a 5.

Digging Deep

Drawing on the highly regarded--and highly readable--Perrine's text, students will refresh and reinforce the meaning and application of foundational literary elements that contribute to "meaning" in literature. They'll advance beyond the stage of merely identifying devices. In AP Literature, Christine Proctor will help students move from summary to analysis, asserting and support how writers harness tools to reveal universal insights.

Taking Your Writing to the Next Level

Students taking AP Lit have read a lot and have a firm foundation in the mechanics of writing. With a solid grounding in high school-level writing instruction and practice under their belts, they'll be quite comfortable with the conventions of the five-paragraph essay and have a clear understanding of its component parts. That will be the starting point--but they'll quickly break free from those confines.

Students will be structuring their writing based upon ideas and arguments rather than mechanical, pre-set conventions--which is just what they should expect in college.
Composition instruction, pre-writing, detailed instructor feedback, and post-essay editing will help hone writing skills.

AP Lit-ers have mastered grammar—but just a tiny bit of reminding might be needed—so they'll work on nuances in grammar patterns and sentence structures, helping them improve the skillfulness and elegance of their compositions.
MLA principles will be applied from day one, and the class will soon be pros at MLA formatting, parenthetical citation, and works cited construction.

Active Collaboration with Your Classmates

In Blue Tent Online English classes, students will converse in a text-based (asynchronous) manner with home-schooled students from across the country--and perhaps around the world--engaging in active, weekly discussion forums in their on-line classroom.

Leading and joining in on course-related conversations is a core component of Blue Tent classes.
A Socratic approach to sharing ideas and writing offers the opportunity to assert and defend views. It also gives students the opportunity to reflect on other viewpoints and consider alternate writing strategies through class modeling.
In the Moodle classroom, discussion forums are a safe place to stretch and explore as students and their classmates build a friendly foundation of mutual respect and acknowledge each other's insights and progress in the class.

Confidence that You'll Be Ready for the AP Exam

Most students take the AP Lit exam in May--although it's not a requirement for this class. Some choose to opt out. Assignments that will help prepare for the AP exam are interwoven throughout the year in a constructive and meaningful way.

The class will be writing essays that come directly from AP exam prompts from day one, and in the second semester they will begin practicing timed writing.
While close reading and multiple choice strategies will be practiced throughout the year, six weeks before the AP exam students will take partial--and then full-- practice exams that come directly from past exams released by the College Board.

There will be ample opportunity to zoom in on the areas of greatest need or benefit, and this review process will prepare students to take on the AP Lit exam with calm confidence.

"There Is No Frigate Like a Book"

While the AP exam is an important part of the year, as Emily Dickinson's poem maintains, "there is no frigate like a book." We invite students to join a rich and rewarding AP Lit journey. Embarking with a group who will soon become friends, students can expect to deepen their insights as they share a mutual interest and enthusiasm for literature.